Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers

Shane Claiborne's book "The Irresistible Revolution" wrecked me - in a good way - when I read it last year. So I was excited to stumble across another one of his books - Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers. I usually don't pick up books on "prayer," but the title and premise of this book was intriguing. It was also a short read - 120 pages.

"Prayer is not so much about convincing God to do what we want God to do as it is about convincing ourselves to do what God wants us to do." --from the Introduction Activists Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove show how prayer and action must go together. Their exposition of key Bible passages provides concrete examples of how a life of prayer fuels social engagement and the work of justice. Phrases like "give us this day our daily bread" and "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" take on new meaning when applied to feeding the hungry or advocating for international debt relief. If you hope to see God change society, you must be an ordinary radical who prays--and then is ready to become the answer to your own prayers.

I really enjoyed this book, but found at times that perhaps I don't have big enough faith to truly live out the challenges presented in the book. There's a part of me that wants to live radically, but feels suffocated and censored to do anything about it. Living like Jesus is so hard. Yet, as I was reminded on the second to last page of the book:

"You are the only Jesus some people will ever see. We get to become the body of Christ, to be people who remind the world of Jesus. We are God's body. None of us is Christ alone, but all of us are Christ together. We are God's body in this world."

I remember feeling this way last year after reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan and Irresistible Revolution. My prayer is that I don't let this fire I feel in my heart die out to complacency again, but rather I trust God to take little steps towards becoming more and more like Jesus and loving His people.

To Recap:

Worth Reading? Yes, if you are serious about prayer and social justice

Worth Buying My Own Copy? No

Recommend to Friends? Yes...my poor husband now has another book recommendation